RSSCommon/Pete Rock [extended]
- All Souled Out [Elektra, 1991]
- Mecca and the Soul Brother [Elektra, 1992]
- Resurrection [Ruthless, 1994] ★★
- One Day It'll All Make Sense [Relativity, 1997] B+
- Like Water for Chocolate [MCA, 2000] A−
- Electric Circus [MCA, 2002] B
- The Best of Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth (Good Life) [Elektra/Rhino, 2003] A−
- Be [Geffen, 2005] ★★★
- Finding Forever [Geffen, 2007] A−
- Universal Mind Control [Geffen, 2008] ★★
- The Dreamer/The Believer [Think Common/Warner Bros., 2011] ★★★
- Nobody's Smiling [Def Jam/Artium, 2014] ★★
- Black America Again [Def Jam, 2016] ★★
- The Auditorium Vol. 1 [Loma Vista, 2024] A−
See Also:
Consumer Guide Reviews:
Pete Rock & CL Smooth: All Souled Out [Elektra, 1991]
Pete Rock & CL Smooth: Mecca and the Soul Brother [Elektra, 1992]
Common Sense: Resurrection [Ruthless, 1994]
hip hop of the everyday--a rare yet too ordinary thing ("I Used to Love H.E.R.," "Pop's Rap," "Resurrection") ★★
Common: One Day It'll All Make Sense [Relativity, 1997]
With no notable penchant for ear candy or mass ass appeal, this Chicago rhymer carves out an unpretentious artistic space that couldn't have existed before hip hop--no singer-songwriter's everyday ruminations come such social content or physical form. Common raps about black life as most black people live it and black manhood as most young black men grow into it, and while his flow isn't primed for the dance floor, it's complex and full-bodied in a way few, you know, white artists could imitate, much less make up. Nor is that the only way he's complex--guy spends considerable time dancing in his head. B+
Common: Like Water for Chocolate [MCA, 2000]
See: Rising to the Top. A−
Common: Electric Circus [MCA, 2002]
Sometimes brave men march off into the swamp and get seriously lost, so let's hope Captain ?uestlove and his s?uad remembered the DEET. Vocal flow's not the problem, and set to the beat-smart fusion lite of Like Water for Chocolate, the humanity of the well-meaning poetry would probably outweigh all the forced similes and sentimental lapses. Outfitted in this music, however, Common's pretensions stand up and do jumping jacks. There are pleasurable rhythm elements, and under the circumstances, the Stereolab cameo is kind of an up. But those are parts. The whole is keybs like golden nacho goo, guitar sticking out like chips, please-not-more codas, and everywhere the angelic twaddle of singing swingles doo-doo. B
Pete Rock & CL Smooth: The Best of Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth (Good Life) [Elektra/Rhino, 2003]
I missed these guys--too smooth and insufficiently rock, I guess. That was deaf. In this distillation, Smooth's rapping rivals Rakim's, and Rock is an all-time DJ. Credited samples are few, but the music's pure rhythmic pleasure returns us to those thrilling days of yesteryear before property rights trumped art: as dense with borrowed, distressed, and performed elements as the Bomb Squad's sometimes, only flowing rather than explosive. Smooth recalls a wiser time as well: conscious not self-righteous, ghetto not thug. A−
Common: Be [Geffen, 2005]
Few of the best moments belong to the main attraction, who's not as wise as they tell him he is ("It's Your World [Part 1 & 2]," "The Food [Live]"). ★★★
Common: Finding Forever [Geffen, 2007]
Beat scholars call this producer Kanye West's J. Dilla tribute, but us hip-hop GED's wonder when the late legend ever put his hand to R&B so smart and smooth. R&B rather than hip-hop is how it signifies. From "Windmills of Your Mind" to "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," the samples subtler and more surprising than last time, and let me also mention the Ethiopian jazz and the Animals' Nina Simone cover in between. In fact, the best music here is so deep it's more powerful than the rhymes. These are strongest at their most forgiving--"The People," "Misunderstood," "U, Black Maybe"--and most R&B in their articulations of what a dog he still is. Which are we to believe, the romantic "I Want You" or the postromantic "Break My Heart"--or the carnal D'Angelo collab "So Far to Go"? A−
Common: Universal Mind Control [Geffen, 2008]
Conscious rappers have afterparties too ("Gladiator," "Universal Mind Control [UMC]"). ★★
Common: The Dreamer/The Believer [Think Common/Warner Bros., 2011]
Still on a major label, he's damn well gonna act it ("Raw [How You Like It]," "The Believer") ★★★
Common: Nobody's Smiling [Def Jam/Artium, 2014]
Gone back to Chitown, he "could give a fuck if it's real or a weave" ("Hustle Harder," "Nobody's Smiling") ★★
Common: Black America Again [Def Jam, 2016]
Wish so much this all-star showcase was much more than a lecture--so much ("The Day Women Took Over," "Letter to the Free," "Pyramids") ★★
The Auditorium Vol. 1 [Loma Vista, 2024]
For well over three decades, the rapper christened Lonnie Rashid Lynn whose rap name evolved from the simultaneously humble and dull Common Sense to the simultaneously simple and grandiose Common has lived up to both claims, and although crediting producer Pete Rock in the slug line would seem a nice show of humility it's also a by now a commonplace—as Common has said himself on Instagram: "A Dream to let the world know I've been here. A dream to be part of Hip Hop. A Dream to MC at a level where De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, KRS One and Ice Cube knew who I was." Musically, he doesn't get there, because that's just not who he is flow-wise. Instead he nails a hip-hop of the everyday, a rare thing just because it sounds so ordinary. Daydreamin' of Gladys nights, he's proud to "use the microphone for a rhyme and a staff," to celebrate "the birth of the Nation of Islam," and at 52 still wants to know why "my endless love always comes to an end." Because he never actually brags on this attempted masterwork, he personifies the common sense he started off by claiming. Just for that you have to respect the guy. A−